Contemplative Outreach Newsletter
Volume 17, No. 2, Fall 2003/Winter 2004

Peacemaking
by Fr. Thomas Keating

People in oppressive situations develop myths to sustain their hope of liberation. The Israelites of Jesus’ time created the myth of the Kingdom of God that promised a definitive victory by force over their enemies and the establishment of the dominion of Israel over the nations of the world. Universal peace was to flow from this arrangement. This mythical expectation was not Jesus’ idea of the Kingdom of God and brought him into confrontation with the authorities and the popular mind of the time, including his own disciples. Only a handful of people assimilated his understanding of the Kingdom of God, a view set forth in the parables in which Jesus effectively undermined the popular mind-set and established his own, based on his experience of God as Abba, the Father who is Love itself. To know the Father in this way is to experience peace that is beyond all understanding, a peace which the world cannot give. This peace might be called "Christ Consciousness.” No one wants his or her idea of peace threatened. Hence the need to distinguish between peace lovers and peace makers.

Almost everybody wants peace, especially those who are fighting for what they think it is. Here are a few common expectations: a good portfolio, a high standard of living, a home of one’s own, family, good friends, and fulfilling relationships, top notch entertainment, a good reputation, good feelings about ourselves. The moderate possession of these things are real values, even needs, but they represent the peace that the world gives. When one of them is shattered, one feels the pain of loss, grief, and anger. As the suffering, anguish, and alienation increase, we may turn our pain outwardly onto others, despising in others the dark side of our personality that we are unwilling to face. This is basically what leads to violence and disregard of the rights and needs of others. Our pain is superficially or temporarily dissipated by hating others or the circumstances that shatter our particular myth regarding the circumstances of life that we identify with peace.

A peace lover clings to his or her myths and vigorously resists anything or anyone who challenges them. A peacemaker is one who is willing to give up all myths of peace in order to receive the “peace that the world cannot give.” He or she is one who has accepted Jesus’ idea of the Kingdom, which is the knowledge and experience of the God of all creation as Abba-- Jesus’ endearing name for God the Father.

Suffering, anguish, alienation, separation from God, others and one’s true self are the normal consequences of sin. God is disposed to take into Godself, all the consequences of evil behavior if we sit with these painful feelings rather than seek to escape from them into distractions or by projecting them onto other people. God joins us in our suffering, anguish, and alienation and takes the whole burden upon himself. We have to acknowledge these sufferings as our own in the sense that we are truly their cause. The painful consequences are the natural sanction of negative behavior, not punishments from God. When we take responsibility for our faults and their consequences, we make ourselves totally vulnerable to the truth. We know that we are undeserving of God’s grace and of anybody else’s love. We hit bottom, but instead of running away, we accept the truth of our wrongdoing along with our powerlessness to do anything about it. We may experience discouragement, despair, self-hatred, even desolation, for having failed God, abused his gifts betrayed our integrity, and injured everybody else in the human family. Here is the precise point where God the Father joins us, taking all the consequences of our sins into Godself and obliterating them in the abyss of the Divine Mercy. Jesus, in his passion, death, and descent into hell manifested in his own sufferings what the Father is doing and has been doing from the beginning of human consciousness: forgiving and obliterating the sins of the world.

A peacemaker is one who is willing to give up 
all myths of peace in order to receive the 
“peace that the world cannot give.”

“Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world” is an ancient text sung or
recited just before communion in every mass. If the Lamb of God—Jesus, the Son of God— has taken away the sins of the world, where are they? They have disappeared into God’s infinite and unconditional love. God has found us and now must celebrate by incorporating us into his Son. The symbols of full acceptance into the Father’s love are celebrated in the Parable of the Prodigal Son by the banquet, music, and dancing. The self-righteous, of whom the Elder Son in the parable was one, cannot understand God’s largess, in which all is forgiven in exchange for honesty. The Elder Son, intent on his material inheritance and worldly values, did not recognize the extent of his own weakness and brokenness, nor could he accept it. When he tastes the consequences of his selfcenteredness, he quickly disowns them by projecting his uneasy conscience onto his brother. The Father in the Parable cannot reach the truth of his Elder Son’s being, from which the self-righteous are so well defended. Thus, the Father can only expostulate with his Elder Son but cannot heal him. The Elder Son with his idealized self-image, is unwilling to surrender and experience the gratuity of his Father’s love.

God, for whom the Father in the Parable is an image, cannot heal ideas, but only persons. The Prodigal Son has been forced to face his own utter failure, woundedness, and hopelessness, thus experiencing to the depths the consequences of his reckless and irresponsible pursuit of pleasure and “the good life.” The Father can now redeem him, taking all his emotional suffering, shame and guilt feelings into himself and must celebrate the victory of unconditional love over all his sins. The resurrection of Jesus is the symbol of this celebration. Inner peace is our participation in the banquet of divine love, the forgiveness of everyone and everything and the affirmation of the goodness of all creation in spite of any and all appearances to the contrary. The path of true peacemaking is now open. 

Our pain is God’s pain. Much of our suffering is needless, the natural consequences of self-centered activity. There is also useful suffering. That is the pain or suffering we endure for others that may be physical, mental, or spiritual. This is the suffering that we take into ourselves out of love for God and the healing of the individual and societal wounds of the human family. In this way God’s pain becomes our pain.

Fear, not hatred, is the opposite of love. Fear fixes our attention on ourselves making it hard to hear the cries of the poor and of our neighbors. Love opens us to the whole world. Fear of punishment undermines the capacity to love. And yet there remains an even greater fear. It is the fear of being loved so much by God.

How does one respond to such love and how can one share it with others? Those who do are the world’s best hope for peace.

Peacemaking // The President's Letter // Invitation to Generosity
The Board of Trustees // Sought Through Prayer & Meditation
The Spanish Corner // International Outreach // Updates